Curiously Lorin: wedding

"Why are you stressing out so much over the invites?" Tom asks

For a moment I consider the question. Why does the prospect of sending out a little care stress me out so much?

For me, the invite is the first touch point between you and your guests. It's the thing that gives the briefest of glimpses into the style and concept of the day and what your guests can expect from your wedding. To me that's a lot of pressure!

I've known friends that have had a rustic teepee wedding and had some beautiful handmade invites. I've been to weddings where the invites have been very traditional and simple. They all seem to invoke a sense of what's to come.

Four our invites, I wanted something classy and elegant but also with a nod to the botanical feel of the venue and the earthy feel of the day. I originally did the whole shebang of tootling off to various wedding fairs and pouring over the lovely invites on offer from sellers. However at £2-3 a pop with over 100 guests that seemed like a huge waste of money. Money better spent in other areas.

I've always been artistic and so I waited for a voucher code to come up on Vistaprint (keep an eye out they always have offers on!) and designed them up myself. I found it extremely easy as there is a whole section for invites, RSVP's and save the dates.

I went with a botanical design with rounded corners and added some geometric lines in rose gold as a nod to our cake. I then chose a lovely scripted font.

Our venue offers our guests a choice of food for the day so we had to include the menu. Instead of increasing cost and wasting paper we added the menu onto the back of the invite for a small fee.

I think in total the stationary cost £100 for the invites, menus, save the dates, evening invites, monogrammed stickers and I even designed a small business card sized insert asking people to not give us wedding gifts (after all we've lived together five years, we really don't need any more plates!). They even came with free envelopes.

I was thrilled when they arrived. The only issue now is getting them back in from people!

"I hope my Wedding is as good as the one I've planned on Pinterest."

Ok so...I'm not going to lie and say that when Tom popped the question, the millions of photos I have pinned to my Dream wedding Pinterest Board didn't go hurdling it's way into my little elated brain. My wedding is something I have always dreamed of and being such a hopeless romantic it's something I feel is an extension of us as a couple.

So when Tom asked me where I wanted to get married, after initially fantasizing about Sleeping Beauties Castle in Disneyland I finally decided to look for a barn type location. Something chilled and natural and above all PRETTY.

I have been to plenty of hotel weddings and whilst they were all lovely I never really felt the "wow" factor with any of the decor. Being a photographer in my spare time I knew I wanted something that I would look at in years to come on photos and think....yep....that was my venue.

I initially looked at the Wedding Barn in Gilling West which was I have to say STU-NNING however way way out of our price range. I don't believe in taking out extra loans to pay for the wedding so I reluctantly walked away from that one and scoured local blogs and wedding mags to find something new.

That's where I came upon the South Causey Inn at Stanley, County Durham. I remember seeing an article on a wedding website and I just thought....yep...that's the one. So I booked an appointment.

It's a hotel however they have built a whole separate wedding venue at the back, including the most delightful pagan looking chapel. With the beams, the stone floor and the quirky floral touches I was instantly sold.

Price wise, it fitted. The venue takes care of centerpieces, food, canapes, drinks, table dressing, the DJ, cake table and so much more. All we had to get was an outfit, cake, flowers and our table plan!

I literally can't wait to get married here. I feel like every time I visit I get more and more excited about the big day. It may have a little something to do with the fact that every time we go up we have tea in the restaurant and the food is divine. Proper home cooked comfort food!

If anyone is engaged, I strongly recommend checking out this place.